As Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) starts his sixth year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) starts to teach him more about Voldemort’s past. Meanwhile emotions are running high as Ron (Rupert Grint) gets a girlfriend and Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) appears to have a secret.

At the heart of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a mystery, in fact there’s a few of them. There is the secrets of Voldemort’s past and what the new Potions teacher Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) has to do with it. There’s the mystery of the old potions book marked as “the property of the Half-Blood Prince” that Harry is using to get him to the top of the class. And there’s the mystery of what Draco’s planning.

With all these potentially heavy plot threads, it’s a good thing The Half-Blood Prince is very funny at times. That comes from these teenage characters acting like teenagers and the great chemistry a lot of them have. There’s romance, heartbreak and miscommunication and it all comes together with these young actors who have grown into their roles. Rupert Grint has always had great comic timing but Daniel Radcliffe shines in this film and it turns out he can be pretty funny too.

Draco is such a tragic character in this film. Every time we’ve seen him previously he’s been horrible and mean for the sake of it, but in The Half-Blood Prince he’s clearly conflicted. While he doesn’t have a big role, when he is in on screen Tom Felton is wonderful.

While the performances are great, The Half-Blood Prince left me feeling a little bored. It’s a very informative film and the pace of it really slows down at some points. When there are big computer-generated set-pieces they are often thrilling, but in between them with all the teen angst it can feel a bit dull.

The colour palette of this film is also dull. It leaves everything feel very cold and looking washed out, though admittedly when there’s scenes with fire those bright orange colours sure do make an impact. In scenes in Dumbledore’s office it almost takes on a sepia tone which is a bit odd too.

While Rupert Grint is still great as Ron, Ron is unfortunately side-lined a lot in pivotal moments. This is never more noticeable than in the final scene where Harry and Hermione (Emma Watson) are having a meaningful discussion and Ron doesn’t say one word, just sits in the corner looking glum. I don’t know if he did have some lines that were then cut but having him not say anything makes him look like a third wheel to Harry and Hermione’s friendship which is simply not the case.

I think (though we’ll have to see what I make of the two Deathly Hallows films on rewatch) The Half-Blood Prince is my least favourite Harry Potter film. There’s (naturally) a lot of stuff from the book left out but this is the first film where you notice that, for instance there could have been more about Voldemort’s past to flesh him out as a villain and cut down on some of the romance stuff.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a film that’s building to something big, but it doesn’t really have the payoff one might be expecting. Still, it’s by no means terrible and it’s a decent addition to the series. 3/5.